Well I just finished the Chaos Rising Campaign. Very well put together. It doesn't have as many side missions as the original but all are meaningful this time around. You do get a few instances where you choose where to deploy but unless you fail a mission more than once you can still make it to each.

Having seen how the campaign goes I think it's highly like that the next race will be a combined inquisition force instead of just Imperial Guard.

Ending Spoilers

Spoiler for Hiden:

The game ends on a cliffhanger! Argh! Very cool to find out that the Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens is a follower of Chaos. The previous games have hinted at it for a while so it's nice to have it revealed.

So... middle of last week steam downloaded a huge update for DoW II. I knew this was to make it compatible with the Chaos Rising expansion, so I expected it to contain a lot of game assets and be as relatively large a download as it was.

What I did not expect was that today when I bought Chaos Rising there was no download whatsoever. Apparently that update you download includes the expansion campaign and the whole deal, it's just all locked if you don't buy Chaos Rising.

Turtle, I would love to play with you. My gamertag = IkeV. I haven't played the MP in months. I was never that good, and I'm probably rusty as hell.

So, I'm really enjoying the SP campaign. There's just something about it. I don't exactly get the corruption mechanic - am I supposed to remain pure? Or allow myself to become corrupted? The latter doesn't seem very space mariney to me. There are also some weird sound issues. The voices seem to cut in and out in volume.

Haven't played any MP yet, but I'd love to.

Logged

Gamertag = IkeVI KNOW DEEP IN MY NMIND THAT THIS DISGUSTING WEBSITE THAT IS OBIVOUSLY OPERATED BY HIGHSCHOOL DROPOUTS LIVING PURPOSELESS AND JOBLESS LIVES

Going corrupt, from what I've seen, is more just a choice between being an evil jerk or not.

The multiplayer community is going through a very big readjustment right now, as people learn the new units, and many small subtle (or not so subtle) changes to the game.

One thing we're noticing in the meta right now is how spamming and blobbing is back in force, which is disturbing since it's one of the things that ruined the game. But it may be that we don't understand all the latest tools to combat that. However, the change to artillery rules means that some of the anti-blob weaponry can be avoided by staying on the move.

The good news is that the new FFA mode is pretty casual. There will always be higher skilled players that you encounter, but you can have fun in an FFA just grabbing what you can and fighting, and if things get too crazy just retreat to base and let other players fight for a bit while you reinforce.

I'm PicTurtle on GFWL and Vanigan on Steam (will show up as Turtle on the steam friends list).

So... middle of last week steam downloaded a huge update for DoW II. I knew this was to make it compatible with the Chaos Rising expansion, so I expected it to contain a lot of game assets and be as relatively large a download as it was.

What I did not expect was that today when I bought Chaos Rising there was no download whatsoever. Apparently that update you download includes the expansion campaign and the whole deal, it's just all locked if you don't buy Chaos Rising.

Oh how I love Relic.

This way, Steam isn't clobbered by a bunch of people downloading the game all at the same time when it releases, as the game is silently delivered as a patch. And if you ever want to pay to unlock CR, it's easy, quick, and painless. I think it was a great idea.

I'm curious if anyone has been able to sign up for a THQ account to register their copy of Chaos Rising for the free wargear. I've tried once every day since last Friday, and I never receive the activation e-mail despite adding THQ.com to my "Don't Treat As Spam" list.

I would be up for some FFA tonight if any new players were up for it. The rest of us regulars played a couple FFA's a couple nights ago and it was a lot of fun and the chaotic nature tends to even the playfield even if you don't know the game that well.

After finishing SC2, finally got into the DoW 2 campaign. I certainly don't miss base building at all, though I figure the lack of it is why so many DoW I fans didn't seem happy about this. I guess if some of the small unit stuff in SC2 was taken to a whole separate game, it might end up something like DoW2.

I received Chaos Rising for my b-day, but figured I'd try to finish up DoW2 before I install it.

I dunno if anyone still plays DoW2 original, but I'd be game to try some of the co-op campaign stuff some day (I'm "georogue" on GFW Live, fwiw).

I couldn't find an original DoW2 thread so thought I'd bump this a little.========================I never get tired of the Assault Squad (jump jets). I giggled the first time the squad "splatted" on top of orcs, and still do every time they jump.

The main thing I don't like about DoW2 and the Chaos Rising expansion campaigns are being limited to only 4 deployment slots. I don't think it would be too much to handle to manage a force of 5 or even 6 units. I would love to be able to take the FC, a ranged suppression unit (avoiding spoilers here), Cyris for scouting and demolitions, Tarkus as the backbone of the team, and either assault marines or the librarian to round out the force. As it is now I have to choose between do I want to be able to scout, or do I want to bring along another unit that would be better in straight up combat? Scouts should be a given, a free deployment slot.

The librarian seems to be perfectly suited to supporting multiple units of SMs, but with only 4 deployment slots, he can't really shine to his full potential. Playing the librarian makes me miss being able to attach leader units to squads. In DoW the librarian was a great attachment for ranged SM squads. In DoW2, he's also a great compliment for supporting Tarkus, which makes me miss being able to combine him into the squad if I wanted.

It's an awesome game, those are just things that have been frustrating me while playing the expansion.

The main thing I don't like about DoW2 and the Chaos Rising expansion campaigns are being limited to only 4 deployment slots. I don't think it would be too much to handle to manage a force of 5 or even 6 units. I would love to be able to take the FC, a ranged suppression unit (avoiding spoilers here), Cyris for scouting and demolitions, Tarkus as the backbone of the team, and either assault marines or the librarian to round out the force. As it is now I have to choose between do I want to be able to scout, or do I want to bring along another unit that would be better in straight up combat? Scouts should be a given, a free deployment slot.

The librarian seems to be perfectly suited to supporting multiple units of SMs, but with only 4 deployment slots, he can't really shine to his full potential. Playing the librarian makes me miss being able to attach leader units to squads. In DoW the librarian was a great attachment for ranged SM squads. In DoW2, he's also a great compliment for supporting Tarkus, which makes me miss being able to combine him into the squad if I wanted.

It's an awesome game, those are just things that have been frustrating me while playing the expansion.

Yeah, I guess I was kinda hoping the game would eventually unlock a 5th slot or more for deployment. I usually find myself leaving the Scout squad at home right now, cause I love using the jump jet assault unit and it's hard for me to leave the other guys at home.

It's confirmed that you'll be able to build basic units in the single player campaign. So, on top of 4 heroes, you get units to move around the field and support. So guys like the librarian will be much more useful.

Cryus and his scouts once leveled up high enough in stealth (energy) and melee (demolitions) can clear most maps on their own until they get to the boss on Normal. Throwing out a 8 landmines at once, with a limitless supply, absolutely destroys most clusters of units on normal.

One thing I'm starting to notice with the Thule vs Avitus choice, is that Thule starts out incredibly strong, and seems like an absolute no brainer to take along on every mission, but Avitus has actually caught up and passed Thule in several areas (like ranged damage and the ability to move and shoot quickly to lay down suppression) in my Chaos Rising campaign. It's a tough choice.

I'm still trying to use the librarian, Jonah, but it's tough for me to micromanage him while also managing all of the other unit powers. I don't feel like I'm using him to his full potential unless I stay on him 90% of the time. It would be cool if you could set AI scripts for the units based on certain conditions.

I'm amazed people try to use the Librarian and actually succeed. I played through Chaos Rising twice, once alone as a pure party and once in Co-Op going full corrupt and both time I thought the Librarian was all but useless. Ironically I found a corrupt Librarian slightly more valuable than the pure one; clearly Chaos really is the only true answer.

If you guys haven't tried it yet I would highly recommend trying out the Co-op at a higher difficulty. At first only controlling two squad members each will feel strange but once you get in sync with your ally you will discover just how much more efficient you can be in a fight when all four squads are microed 100% of the time.

Also, for people who don't normally replay in this type of game, there are actually three different endings(+5 different mid-game differences) based on your party actions throughout the game. They aren't huge but might give you incentive to play at least twice.

I know what you're saying. The librarian is decent with a mixture of stamina and ranged development. He will heal himself with every cast, and Vortex is powerful. The single target damage spell (ignite soul) + the aoe spell you get early on can be ok to good, but require some attentive micro. I forced myself to use him for the entire campaign (pure - no corruption), just for the lore coolness factor of having a Blood Raven librarian along. I had him maxed out for his aoe passive healing, and far enough into ranged to unlock Vortex. He would passively cast his 2 nukes for no cost, while healing himself. By the end of the game he was somewhat durable, as long as he didn't get ranged focus fired.

I just started the campaign again to try full corruption, but I don't plan on using him this time around.

Having recently finished the campaign twice, once For the Emperor! and once falling into chaos, I thought the pro emperor ending was handled much better than the chaos ending. Without giving anything away, I thought there were too many inconsistencies in the dialogue and the reactions to my group of Blood Ravens turning to chaos.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Some of the characters addressed the danger of moving further into madness, but the squads that were completely corrupted didn't really change that much in their dialogue (comparing my 2 playthroughs together). I wanted my guys to be wearing chaos armor by the end of their descent, complete with spikes and freaky helmets. It would have fit with the powers they were using.

I was also disappointed that the Nurgle boss in the end didn't acknowledge their complete fall to Chaos (unless I missed it). Eliphas didn't mention it either. Their dialogue seemed exactly the same as my pro emperor, perfectly clean campaign. I wanted Eliphas to try and use my squads to attack the Blood Ravens, and then try and seduce them into the Black Legion with gifts of power, armor and weapons. Instead I'm left with a goofy still shot in the end showing my clean cut force commander wearing Black Legion armor. Huh? I just murdered the Black Legion losers who wanted to kill my entire team. I laughed out loud when Gabriel said, but now we have to focus on our new enemy...and then they showed my GQ clean cut force commander wearing black legion armor. At least mess up his hair and make him look a little crazy! Remember, he descended into madness!

I really enjoyed the expansion, but the chaos ending was disappointing. The pro Emperor ending was great.